Oceanside vs San Marcos

A side-by-side comparison of Oceanside and San Marcos: population, income, housing, and more.

Oceanside and San Marcos are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Oceanside has the higher population (172,542 vs 94,078 in San Marcos). San Marcos has the higher median household income ($105,286 vs $93,724 in Oceanside). San Marcos has the higher median home value ($792,400 vs $702,000 in Oceanside).

Population, income & housing

	Oceanside	San Marcos
Population	172,542	94,078
Median age	38.1 yrs	36.8 yrs
Median household income	$93,724	$105,286
Median home value	$702,000	$792,400
Median gross rent	$2,207	$2,191
Housing units	66,744	32,255
Homeownership rate	58.5%	63.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	34.3%	42.7%
Unemployment rate	5.4%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Oceanside	San Marcos
Population	175,622 → 172,542 (-1.8%)	95,355 → 94,078 (-1.3%)
Median household income	$72,697 → $93,724 (+28.9%)	$78,797 → $105,286 (+33.6%)
Median home value	$492,600 → $702,000 (+42.5%)	$538,200 → $792,400 (+47.2%)
Median gross rent	$1,753 → $2,207 (+25.9%)	$1,704 → $2,191 (+28.6%)

Oceanside

Population

175,622172,542

Median household income

$72,697$93,724

Median home value

$492,600$702,000

Median gross rent

$1,753$2,207

San Marcos

Population

95,35594,078

Median household income

$78,797$105,286

Median home value

$538,200$792,400

Median gross rent

$1,704$2,191

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Oceanside	San Marcos
Under 5	5.8%	6.2%
5 to 17	15.4%	19.4%
18 to 24	8.7%	9.7%
25 to 34	15.7%	12.4%
35 to 44	13.4%	15.4%
45 to 54	11.8%	12.7%
55 to 64	13.4%	10.9%
65 to 74	9.1%	7.7%
75 and over	6.8%	5.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Oceanside	San Marcos
White (non-Hispanic)	43.3%	44.4%
Black or African American	3.9%	1.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	7.2%	10.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.5%	0.0%
Some other race	0.7%	0.4%
Two or more races	5.8%	5.6%
Hispanic or Latino	38.5%	37.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Oceanside	San Marcos
No high school diploma	13.5%	11.9%
High school graduate	18.8%	16.9%
Some college or associate's	33.3%	28.4%
Bachelor's degree	22.1%	28.4%
Graduate or professional degree	12.2%	14.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Oceanside	San Marcos
Drove alone	71.4%	69.8%
Carpooled	7.9%	7.9%
Public transit	2.1%	0.5%
Walked	1.1%	1.6%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.5%
Worked from home	14.8%	18.7%
Other means	2.4%	1.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Oceanside	San Marcos
1-unit, detached	52.2%	51.1%
1-unit, attached	12.5%	10.2%
2 to 4 units	7.6%	3.9%
5 to 19 units	14.1%	8.3%
20 or more units	9.3%	15.8%
Mobile home & other	4.2%	10.8%

Poverty & households

	Oceanside	San Marcos
Poverty rate	8.1%	10.2%
Average household size	2.79	2.99
Mean commute (minutes)	30	27
Median year structure built	1984	1994